Chapter 23 #2
this is either proof or retribution.
‘I’m coming back.’ I unplug my charger from behind the bedside table and move over to the wardrobe to find the bag I haven’t
touched in weeks.
I run a hand through my hair, trying to control my breathing, and her voice is distant in my ear. ‘Dyl, you don’t need to.’
‘I’m doing it.’ The bathroom door opens and I stride past a flummoxed Max into a cloud of lemon-scented steam. ‘I need to
sort how and when I can get to the station, and then I’ll call you back in fifteen minutes or so, okay?’
‘If you’re sure,’ she says with a sniff, and there’s relief there, relief that I can take charge the way I’m supposed to.
‘Love you.’
‘Love you too.’
I hang up and grab my toothbrush and toiletry bag.
‘What’s going on?’ Clad only in a towel, his hair dripping on to his shoulders, Max bars my exit with an arm.
I dip underneath it and go back into the bedroom. ‘My sister’s dad bailed, so she’s lost her ride to uni today.’
‘And what are you doing?’
‘I’m going back to London.’
He’s in the bedroom doorway now, a hand on the frame. ‘Why?’
‘Because she needs me.’ What other option is there?
‘Can you even drive?’
I pause shovelling things into a bag and glance over at him, repeating Tahlia’s words. ‘I’ll figure it out.’
Our eyes hook and he gives me a long, assessing look that I don’t have time for. I shake my head to clear the pull and go
back to packing.
‘I have a lot of faith in you, but even you couldn’t learn to drive and pass a test in a single morning.’ I don’t smile, but his joke is enough to force me to slow my frantic heartbeat. He crouches
to the floor and curls a hand around my wrist where it’s rooting around in a drawer. ‘Look at me.’
‘I’m in a hurry.’
‘Ten seconds of pause isn’t going to change anything.’ His hand moves down, thumb pressing into my palm. ‘Breathe for me.
Please.’
It’s the please that forces me to let go of the T-shirt I’m holding, and my shoulders slump as he surveys me.
He breathes in slowly and I can’t help but copy, and when he exhales, I mimic that too. We do this a few more times, until
he brushes hair out of my face and says, ‘Better?’
‘Not really.’
‘Let’s think it through. There has to be a solution that doesn’t involve you travelling for six hours to get home without
actually having a way to move her in.’
‘I wanted this to be stress-free for her and it’s already falling apart.’ My voice almost breaks. ‘I knew this trip was a mistake. If I’d been there with her, I’d have sent her dad a reminder, but I’ve been . . . distracted, and now she’s alone in our flat hundreds of miles away, needing my help.’
His eyebrows pull together, and he tucks a finger under my chin as he says, ‘Go and get ready.’ I open my mouth to object,
but he cuts me off with, ‘No. Look, you’d have to get ready for the day regardless. So do as I say, just this once. I have
an idea, but I need to make a phone call.’
He stands, tightening the towel around his waist while he waits for me to respond.
I don’t know what it is that makes me do it. The fact that my mind’s spinning too fast to figure out a plan? The thought that
he’s probably had last-minute transport issues too, over the years?
Or maybe, it’s the fact that, despite his warnings against it, I trust him.
‘Okay,’ I say quietly. I take the hand he offers to help me up, his grip reassuringly strong.
He squeezes once, and his tone holds no room for doubt when he says, ‘Let me handle this.’
Those four words stop my brain mid-freefall.
By the time I step out of the bathroom, dressed in an outfit that I grabbed at random from the drawer, my chest is still taut
with nerves. Max is sprawled across the sofa in his towel, laughing with someone on the phone, and I hover for a moment, unsure
what to expect.
‘Thanks, mate. No, a hundred per cent, she’s gonna hate it.’ He laughs again, one of his room-filling ones, then spots me
and smiles. ‘Wait, Dylan’s here, let me fill her in.’ He puts his phone on speaker and starts to explain. ‘Finn O’Callaghan,
the icon, the legend, the brother I never had, has agreed to help out. He and Ava will hire a car this morning and drop Tahlia
off at uni.’
Max saying my sister’s name does something to my insides, but it’s soon overtaken by the realisation of what he just suggested.
‘That’s too much,’ I say into the phone, moving to the sofa and lifting his legs so I can sit next to him. He drapes his legs over mine once I’m settled.
‘Dylan, honestly,’ Finn says, ‘I bought Ava and me a joint National Trust membership—’
‘Did she make fun of you for it?’ Max interrupts, setting his phone on his thigh, which overlaps with my own.
‘Relentlessly. Anyway, I’ve been dying to go to a site and there’s one not far from your sister’s uni, so we’re gonna drop Tahlia and then check it out. I mean,
unless she wants to join us, but I assume she’ll be busy being, you know, youthful. Not someone whose idea of a fun day out
is visiting a National Trust property.’
Some of the strain starts to loosen from my chest, but then a sneaking suspicion overtakes me. I spent months working in the
coffee shop with Ava and bore witness to her at this time of day. Weekend lie-ins are sacred to her, even now. ‘Ava’s not
awake yet, is she? Have you asked her about any of this?’
There’s a pause, then Finn says, ‘She likes your sister; she’ll do it. And you helped her carry that bookshelf on the train
home the other month when I was busy.’
‘Carrying a flat-pack Billy bookcase from Croydon IKEA isn’t the same as driving your friend’s sister to uni and moving her
in.’
Max waves a hand and says, ‘Close enough,’ as if he’s the one going out of his way to do this.
I think it through, the weight of his legs an anchor to my spiralling brain. Tahlia likes Ava, too. After Ava helped me supervise
Tahlia’s eighteenth birthday party, Tahlia spent the whole of the next week gushing over my friend’s awe-inspiring intolerance
of teenage boys trying to hit on her. She’d be comfortable spending a few hours with her.
Max is watching me, and he asks, ‘Do you approve of the plan?’
‘Yeah. Okay.’ My shoulders drop, and I lean towards the phone to say, ‘Thank you so much, Finn. I’m going to talk to Tahlia,
and then I’ll make a group chat where we can sort all the details.’
‘Sounds good,’ he says brightly. ‘My plan is to cook some pancakes and leave the bedroom door open in the hope it’ll trick
Ava into waking up in a good mood.’
‘Ha,’ Max says, and even I huff a laugh. Max’s eyes glimmer in triumph. ‘Cute of you to try. Thanks Baz. Send me a screenshot of the hire car and I’ll transfer you the money.’
I go to protest but Max puts a hand over my mouth, and he keeps it there while both men throw out multiple ‘love you’s and ‘miss you’s before they hang up.
I remove his hand and look at him. ‘You don’t need to pay. It should be me.’
Or Tahlia’s dad, realistically.
He shrugs, extracting his legs from mine and setting his feet on the rug. ‘I don’t know how to say this without sounding like
a prick, but I get far too much money from this job. I don’t really use it.’
‘Well, thank you. Really.’ I don’t want to take it, but I know him well enough by now to know he won’t budge. ‘Thank you for
sorting all of it.’
‘I told you I would.’
I reach over and wrap my arms around his bare torso, my hands warming at the contact with his skin. He lets out a short, surprised
sound but pulls me to him in return, his damp hair tickling my neck, one hand moving up to cup the back of my head. My pulse
steadies, my breathing settles, and, piece by piece, the panic subsides; the tide going out, slow and gentle.
‘Can I repay you somehow?’ I mumble into his shoulder.
His low chuckle rumbles through me. ‘Maybe later.’ I expect him to make some suggestive comment, but instead he just leans
back, pushes hair out of my face and says, ‘Things don’t always have to fall solely on your shoulders, you know. People are
usually willing to help, if you let them.’
Ava: Tahlia is officially in the car and we are on our way
Dylan: She just texted–thank you so so so much for helping out, you’re the best
Dylan: I’m going to pay you back somehow when I get home
Ava: honestly don’t worry about it
Ava: Finn is desperate to visit this one castle nearby so today is like Christmas for him
Ava: he’s been going on about moats all morning
Ava: I didn’t know moats were something a person COULD go on about but alas, this man continues to find ways to surprise me
Dylan: Max surprised me too
Dylan: I mean
Dylan: By talking me down and figuring out how to fix this thing
Ava: he’s pretty good in a crisis
Ava: although he also often *is* the crisis so . . .
Dylan: I’m glad he’s here
Dylan: He’s been a pretty good roommate
Ava: [typing]
Ava: [typing]
Ava: [typing]
Ava: you’re sleeping with her aren’t you
Ava: ffs
Max: [typing]
Ava: don’t you dare answer, I don’t need to know
Ava: just don’t be an idiot